Nobody Has a Clue

Today, Barnes & Noble announced its latest quarterly loss. You’ll see several news reports in the following posts.

In the world of coachspeak (see examples below), coaches spout the same clichésover and over again without really saying anything.

PG didn’t listen to the Barnes & Noble earnings (losses) call with analysts today (he had previously planned to floss his teeth), but the quotes from BN’s CEO of the week sound like corporate coachspeak.

“As a result of the improving trends, we will continue to place a greater emphasis on books.”

“There’s too much stuff in the stores.”

“definite shift in strategy”

“Our goal is to get smaller.”

“Through customer research, we discovered that customers come to Barnes & Noble not only to browse and discover, but also to interact with our booksellers. This is a big takeaway for our store managers from a recent conference.”

“We remain laser focused on cost reduction initiatives that are centered on realizing efficiencies and simplification.”

“And while we’re not ready for prime time yet, I feel the team has done a very good job at loading up the pipeline with a lot of good ideas.”

“I think we’ve done a nice job of coming together to understand what needs to happen here.”

“What we can tell you is we have a better plan than we did at the start of the year.”